Estrus Detection for Dairy Cow Using a Laser Range Sensor

Abstract

In today dairy farms, detecting estrus and successful impregnating of a cow play a vital role in increasing pregnancy rates and improving the reproductive performance of dairy cows. In this paper, we propose an effective estrus detection system by using a laser range sensor to achieve high accuracy detection. In order to do so, we observe that the most obvious estrus behavior is standing heat symptom. The standing cows remain briefly motionless for several seconds when repeatedly mounted by mounting cow. This system measures the highs and distances of mounting and standing cows by detecting the movement signals of mounting behavior. When signal of the sensor exceed a threshold value, the system determines achieving the goal of estrus detection. To confirm the validity of proposed method a series of experiments were performed at the University Dairy farm giving very promising results.